Grizzly expert shares life with Brutus

August 26, 2010|By Glen Young News-Review Columnist

A recent news story predicted a tough season upcoming for bear-human encounters in Montana. Seems grizzlies in the American west are not only struggling to find food and range, but their numbers are suffering as a result.

The news is particularly prescient given the recent publication by Pegasus Books of Casey Anderson’s “The Story of Brutus.”

Anderson, host of National Geographic channel’s Expedition Wild, is a grizzly expert, having worked with bears for more than a decade. “The Story of Brutus” is Anderson’s ode to his bruin buddy Brutus, a formerly cuddly cub the television host rescued from probable euthanasia.

While some readers might prefer more hard science to anthropomorphism, Anderson does provide an intimate look at his relationship with a grizzly that now goes nearly a half ton and stands more than eight feet tall.

Brutus was born in captivity, in a drive-through wildlife preserve in Idaho. Necessarily taken from his mother as a cub, Brutus quickly bonded with Anderson and while it is a bit over simple for Anderson to constantly refer to his bear friend as his “son,” there was clearly and quickly a connection that has lasted over many intervening and exhaustive years.

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Anderson agreeably renders his own background, explaining that as a youngster, “When (his) father had any free time it was spent in the mountains and (Anderson) was hot on his heels.” Together the two tramped across the Montana outback, where young Anderson honed his outdoor skills, which we’re told included an innate sense for sensing and tracking.

Perhaps the most impressive moments in Anderson’s recollection are those of his first attempts at filmmaking, when he and his crew were hiking long miles through early spring Yellowstone outback, where seas of winter glacial ice gave way to thigh deep muck.

With a $120,000 camera in his backpack, Anderson set out across this tundra in search of bears. Before his first foray was over, two young cubs had scrambled by, evading a marauding male who walked within 15 yards of Anderson’s scant hiding spot above timberline.

Anderson differentiates Brutus and his Yellowstone cousins from their more docile kin in Alaska. While Alaskan bears are more subdued, “In Yellowstone, the bears are not forgiving.” Anderson suggests this might have to do with the closer proximity of humans to the Yellowstone population and the bears’ worries over food, something less problematic in the more abundant and less populated regions of the 49th state.

Not all his early moments with Brutus were perfect, but “Then there were the magical moments when we understood each other. Those moments cascaded into more such moments, which took us to the next level.”

Anderson’s advice to would-be naturalists is simple: “If you are afraid of conflict with bears, go to the beach or the city park.”

While some of Anderson’s conclusions tend toward platitudes suggesting too much anthropomorphism, “The Story of Brutus” demonstrates both the connections across species, as well as the recognition that wild animals need wild places.

Good Reading.

Glen Young teaches English at Petoskey High School. His column, Literate Matters, appears the second and fourth Thursday of each month. Young can be reached at P.O. Box 174, Petoskey, Mich. 49770. Follow his blog at www.literatematters.blogspot.com